It is the highest figure since 1994, when people fled genocide in Rwanda and bloodshed in the former Yugoslavia.

By the end of 2012, the world had 15.4 million refugees, 937,000 asylum seekers and 28.8 million people who had been forced to flee within the borders of their own countries, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said.

The overall numbers rose by six per cent from the end of 2011. The increase translated into someone becoming a new refugee or internally displaced person somewhere in the world every 4.1 seconds during the last year.

Britain granted asylum to 14,600 people, the third highest number in the European Union behind Germany and Sweden, with most of the rise accounted for by Syria.

Aid agencies have warned that a quarter of Syria’s population, or five million people, could spill over its borders by the end of the year at current rates of exodus.

It is estimated that there are currently 1.6 million people from Syria in need of refugee assistance in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt. The number fleeing have increased by an average of 29 per cent per month over the past year, with Syria’s one millionth refugee only crossing the border in March, two years after the crisis took hold.

As Bashar al-Assad’s forces have consolidated and then fought back against rebels, the UN’s estimated death toll has risen to 93,000.